Quick Links: Resources for Principal Preparation

The start of the fall term can be an ideal time to restock supplies and gather fresh resources for the year ahead. If your work includes preparing and supporting school leaders, here are some helpful links to visit, bookmark, and share as you head back to campus.

Wallace Knowledge Center

The Wallace Foundation has assembled its vast array of reports and other media in a digital Knowledge Center, organized by topic. Visit the School Leadership Knowledge Center for quick access to content on principal preparation programs, standards and policy, pipeline supports, evaluation, and more.

In July, The Wallace Foundation released a report, A New Role Emerges for Principal Supervisors: Evidence From Six Districts in the Principal Supervisor Initiative, highlighting outcomes from the Principal Supervisor Initiative (PSI) and identifying successful ways for principal supervisors’ jobs to be refocused to more effectively support principals’ instructional leadership. The PSI aimed to improve this situation by addressing five core components: (a) revising supervisors’ job description to focus on instructional leadership, (b) reducing the number of principals in each supervisor’s case load, (c) developing supervisors’ capacity to support principals, (d) developing systems to identify and train new supervisors, and (e) strengthening central office structures to support and sustain these changes.The study documents the experience of six institutions that participated in the PSI initiative as reported in a series of interviews and from surveys with participants. Read more about the report in this recent article.

AACTE Webinars

AACTE’s Video Wall contains recordings of several recent webinar series on principal preparation and pipelines, hosted by the Association with support from The Wallace Foundation. The most recent series, “Leveraging Community Resources to Strengthen Clinical Practice for New Principals,” focused on the importance of principals connecting with community-based resources to develop critical partnerships as a means of expanding their roles and impact as instructional leaders. Partnership opportunities and resources were discussed in the areas of mental health support, crisis management, and other timely issues. These webinars provide expert advice on scenarios all new principals must be prepared to address:

For more information on AACTE’s webinars and other work with institutions in partnership with The Wallace Foundation, contact AACTE Director of Programs and Professional Learning Amanda Lester at alester@aacte.org.